My film class saw Be Kind Rewind on Tuesday. When I'm looking at it just for kicks, it's OK. When I sat down to write a review, I found myself more critical. I also remembered a movie I watched last year filmed in Bayonne, N.J., at a mom-and-pop video store. Really? Two flicks of a similar quirky vein in less than 12 months??
Manic comedy. Moviemaking homage. Love letter to community. Be Kind Rewind is all of this, resulting in a frenzied yet meandering film.
Writer/director Michel Gondry specializes in the original; he previously directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Here, he gives us a Passaic, N.J., video/thrift store run by old-time jazz fan Fletcher (Danny Glover), a surrogate father to shy Mike (Mos Def). While Fletcher’s out of town, Mike’s disruptive friend Jerry (an especially antic Jack Black) accidentally erases the tapes – he’s been zapped by the nearby power plant – leading the duo to recreate everything from Ghostbusters to a particular hilarious Rush Hour 2. The customers love it. The government doesn’t.
Be Kind Rewind works best as a valentine to amateur filmmaking. Sure, The Lion King and Robocop “remakes” are funny, but it’s the ingeniousness that produces such enjoyment. Lack tall buildings in the suburbs? Hang from monkey bars in a playground. Need “chop-chop” music? Scratch a record back and forth.
Unfortunately, this cinematic celebration doesn’t occur until 30 minutes into Be Kind Rewind. The lead-up drags, and neither a mumbling Def nor an overly zany Black sustains our interest. When the neighborhood must rally to save the store, we see more clever directing techniques, but sap has overtaken the humor. The last five minutes use music and images, not dialogue, to wrap up the story. It’s like watching an episode of One Tree Hill.
Last year, another quirky, New Jersey-set tale of a dying VHS outlet, Watching the Detectives, made the festival circuit. Be Kind Rewind may have arrived a year later, but its additional doses of eccentricity aren’t enough to ultimately be successful.
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All right, so I finally got around to reupping my blogger subscription and google login nonsense. I'll just post here instead of 18 posts down on the Step Up 2 post, which is what this relates to. Anyhow, I loved the post, and thanks to dedicating it to me, and because of you, my old blog lives again, at least until Monday, when I won't have time for it again... www.genielantern.blogspot.com
Oh and PS - I think it's really weird that we both picked the same blog format without knowing that was what each other had picked!
A "One Tree Hill" reference??? Oh, Lisa. Between "Step Up 2" and OTH, I wonder if an entertainment intervention isn't on the horizon. :)
Sandra,
The intervention should be on my brother, who used to watch "One Tree Hill" every week. I watched three episodes with him, and that's how I learned how each show ends. Ugh. Whatever happened to WRITING???
Lisa
P.S. Jen, I'm glad you liked your dedication. :)
Lisa, another argument against younger brothers. :)
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